Pope Theodore I

Pope Theodore I (577-14 May 649) was the Pope from 642 to 649, succeeding Pope John IV and preceding Pope Martin I.

Biography
Theodore was born in 577 AD in Jerusalem to a family of Greeks that were also considered Syrians. He was one of the Syrian clergy forced to flee from the Levant due to the conquest of Roman Syria by the Byzantine Empire in 636 AD, and he was consecrated as Pope in 642 after being a cardinal in 640. He succeeded Pope John IV, and he fought against Monothelitism, pressuring Constans II of Byzantium to withdraw Heraclius' declaration that Monothelitism was the imperial branch of Christianity. Theodore refused to recognize Paul II of Constantinople as patriarch because Pyrrhus I of Constantinople had not been correctly replaced, and Pyrrhus briefly recanted his heresy in 645 before being excommunicated in 648; Paul was excommunicated in 649. He died the same year.